African American

17 Oct

Old South Meets the New South in Mary Ward Brown's Long-Awaited Collection

"'I'm Rose Pardue, of Rosemont,' Rose had introduced herself as a girl. It had been her open sesame all over the Black Belt of Alabama. She fixed her once-famous eyes on the girl by her bed." So begins the first story of Mary Ward Brown's new collection, It Wasn't All Dancing and Other Stories, published by the University of Alabama Press (UAP) as part of its Deep South Book series.

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22 Jul

A Bookstore Opens in Harlem

Harlem USA, the 275,000-square-foot entertainment and retail mall on 125th Street in Manhattan -- the center of one of the nation's largest African-American communities -- will soon have an independent bookstore. According to store co-owner Rita Ewing, a writer and attorney, the Hue-Man Bookstore opens for business on July 29, with a grand opening celebration scheduled for August 1.

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29 May

Bookseller, Dr. Sharon Ames-Dennard, Named '2002 Working Mother of the Year.'

Before 1989, Dr. Sharon Ames-Dennard -- who in April was named "2002 Working Mother of the Year" by Working Mother magazine -- had never set eyes on a black bookstore. There were none in her rural hometown of Cheapside, Virginia -- population 1,000 -- nor any in the areas of Florida where she attended graduate and undergraduate schools. But an internship in Los Angeles led her to the Aquarius, Eso Won Books, and other black bookstores in the area, where she discovered a new passion.

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15 May

African-American Programming at BEA

This year’s African-American programming provided both a larger business vision and tried-and-true ideas to help booksellers maintain their businesses in a changing marketplace. The conference also boasted a variety of authors, both up-and-coming and well-established.

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02 May

Day 1 at BookExpo America -- Focus on Professional Development

Competing as smarter retailers has become a key strategy for independent booksellers, and the almost 400 independents attending a full day of ABA special educational programming at BookExpo America filled panels and seminars to hear the latest on everything from marketing and inventory control to the "best ideas" in newsletters and staff development. In addition to the panels on business operations and personnel issues, there was an extensive offering of programming on children's bookselling and African-American bookselling.

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21 Mar

African-American Booksellers Conference at BEA Sets Schedule

This year’s African-American Booksellers Conference at BEA will highlight featured authors, prominent figures, and panels geared to helping stores increase profitability. The programming is set for Thursday, May 2, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. Emma Rodgers, owner of Black Images Book Bazaar in Dallas, told BTW that "we think we have a very strong lineup of authors and some very good workshops for booksellers.

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13 Mar

Book Lovers Fight to Keep Store Open

Independent Apple Book Center Struggles for a New Lease on Life

Sherry McGee may be in her last days as an independent bookseller. After signing yet another loan, dumping her 401(K) fund into her beloved Apple Book Center, and facing debts totaling $300,000, she told her staff in late February that she would close the doors this month.

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17 Jan

From Tiny Classified Ad to Community and Cultural Center in Fort Worth

In 1992, Sonia Williams-Babers entered the world of bookselling with "the smallest ad available" in the June issue of Black Enterprise magazine. The ad read "Get Hooked on Black Books -- send $1 for a catalogue." On returning home to Fort Worth, Texas, from Anaheim, California, and their first ABA Convention, Williams-Babers and her husband and business partner, Elvis Babers, found an overflowing post office box.

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15 Jan

A Novel Approach to the Realities of Drug Addiction

Ask Solomon Jones, author of Pipe Dream, (Random House/Striver's Row) what finally turned him away from a crack-addicted life that began in 1990 and he will answer quickly, "I turned to the Lord." Taking pages out of his own life, his novel Pipe Dream catapults readers inside Philadelphia's underground drug world to solve a murder mystery.

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About ABA

The American Booksellers Association, a national not-for-profit trade organization, works with booksellers and industry partners to ensure the success and profitability of independently owned book retailers, and to assist in expanding the community of the book.

Independent bookstores act as community anchors; they serve a unique role in promoting the open exchange of ideas, enriching the cultural life of communities, and creating economically vibrant neighborhoods.

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